The invention relates to a sliding and tilting panel member arrangement, such as a roof for a motor vehicle, with a cover which is movable by a crank through a drive, said crank being nonrotatably mounted on a shaft, said shaft being provided with a gear, said gear having a drive pinion driveably connected with the roof-sliding mechanism, a saucer-shaped recess being provided in the headlining into which the crank can be folded in a certain position.
In such an arrangement if the crank is rigidly connected with the cover through the drive, the crank will be in a position in which it can be folded away into the recess when the roof is in only one or more specified positions. This disadvantage is insignificant for normal sliding roofs, since the operator can be expected to move the sliding roof to a position in which the crank arm can be folded away into the recess, inasmuch as half a turn of the crank, the maximum amount necessary to bring the crank arm into the folding position, does not result in an excessive displacement of the sliding cover. In the case of sliding and tilting roofs, however, the same conditions as described above in the case of a normal sliding roof apply to the sliding of the roof but not to the tilting of the cover, since only a few, for example two, turns of the crank are provided for tilting the cover and the crank can be folded away in the recess in only a few (only two in the example cited) tilted positions of the cover. However, it would be desirable for the crank to be folded away with the cover in any position. To achieve this goal, it has already been proposed (German Offenlegungsschrift 24 26 765) to provide a clutch which can be disengaged between the hub of the crank and the drive pinion, so that the crank can be disengaged from the drive mechanism at any time and with the roof in any position and can be rotated so that it can be folded away in the recess. However, a clutch of this type is relatively costly and requires special actuation by the operator, which is undesirable because the attention of the latter is distracted from the road.
Hence, an object of the invention is to make it possible to fold the crank away in the recess with the sliding and tilting roof in any position, using simple means and without the necessity for special actuation.
This object is achieved according to the invention by mounting the gear loosely on the shaft and providing a driving plate to rotate the gear by means of the shaft in both rotational directions, said driving plate being provided with a stop which cooperates with a stop on the gear, and by the fact that play is provided between the shaft and the driving plate, said play corresponding to the angular range determined by the sum of the lengths of the two stops as measured circumferentially.
The proposal according to the invention ensures that the crank, regardless of the position of the cover at the moment, can be brought into a position in which it can be folded away into the recess. A special advantage of the proposal according to the invention, however, lies in the fact that the crank, by virtue of the play provided, is automatically in the position in which it can be folded away into the recess when the cover is in its closed position, regardless of whether the cover was moved to the closed position from a tilted or a retracted position. If the shaft were rigidly coupled to the driving plate, on the other hand, the shaft would have to be turned back through approximately 300.degree. after the cover reaches the closed position, in order to reach a position in which it could be folded away, since the stop on the driving plate would rest against one side or the other of the stop on the gear, depending on the rotational direction of the shaft, and the shaft would therefore be in a different position in the closed position which the cover assumes after being slid forward from a retracted position than it would have in the closed position which the cover reaches after being lowered from a tilted position.
According to certain preferred embodiments of the invention, the shaft is provided with parallel flattened areas in the vicinity of the driving plate, said flattened areas being on two opposite sides and parallel to one another, and the driving plate is provided with a hole to accept the flattened section of the shaft, the hole being designed so that it allows the shaft to rotate relative to the plate by the predetermined angular range in both rotational directions.
Alternatively, according to other preferred embodiments of the invention, the shaft is provided with a radially projecting pin in the vicinity of the driving plate, said pin extending into a recess in the plate corresponding to the desired amount of play, the ends of said recess forming stops for the pin.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.